Saturday, December 10, 2016

Partisan Alternatives for a Politics of Reconciliation

By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

America
is divided by partisan political polarization that threatens the very fabric of
our democracy. A politics of reconciliation is needed that allows the rejection of conflicting values. The
greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors as ourselves is a common word of faith for Jews,
Christians and Muslims alike. It was
reasonable to assume that it provided shared values for most Americans, but the
recent election debunked that assumption.

Most
of Donald Trump’s supporters claimed to be Christians, but they rejected the moral
imperatives of their faith when they voted for a man who exemplified the
antithesis of Christian morality. Since
most Christians don’t seem to apply the altruistic values of their faith to
their politics, more secular partisan alternatives must be considered to
prevent the unraveling of the fabric of our democracy.

The
electoral college and a two-party duopoly have defined U.S political
history. The two parties have usually produced
enough diversity to prevent political polarization, but when the Republican
Party arose from the wreckage of the Whig Party in 1854, the Democrat and
Republican parties led the U.S. to its most divisive polarization in history: The
Civil War.

Competition
between the two parties is healthy, so long as it is civil and there is the
capability to compromise on major issues.
But when differences between the two parties are defined by hostile
constituencies holding irreconcilable values, as leading up to the Civil War
and as they are today, bipolar partisan hostility can be dysfunctional and dangerous.

Without
shared religious values, there are only two structural alternatives to counter dangerous
partisan polarization. First, reorganize
one or both of the two parties; or second, create additional parties. The objective of both is to allow political
diversity without hostility through a politics of reconciliation that defuses
the risk of bipolar political polarization.

Partisan
polarization has become the norm, and identity politics based on special
interest groups now take precedence over providing for the common good. A leftist Democrat Party now challenges
traditions with an intellectual elite and a coalition of minority groups, while
a radical-right, predominately white and blue collar GOP now seeks to preserve
traditions and return to the idyllic days of the past.

There
has been considerable commentary on changes needed in both the Republican and
Democrat Parties. Before the election, when
it was widely expected that Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump, the
focus was on restructuring a Republican Party hijacked by the radical
right. Now public attention has turned
to reshaping a Democrat Party whose leftist identity politics were rejected by electoral
votes, even as they were approved by a majority of voters.

With
its electoral victories, it seems unlikely that the GOP will abandon its new
radical right posture, and with the popularity of Bernie Sanders, it seems
unlikely that Democrats will reject socialism to reclaim the political middle
ground. That leaves no place for those
political moderates who have previously decided elections, and it opens the
door to a third party.

Will
there be a third party competitive with Republicans and Democrats in 2018? David Houle has three forecasts: That Donald
Trump will be a one-term president; that division in the country in a time of
unprecedented change will create massive movements, demonstrations and civil
disobedience; and that 2016 will be the last year of a two-party system.

Parliamentary
democracies have multiple parties, but they are structured differently than the
American two-party system. To enable a
third party to succeed at the national level in the U.S. the electoral college
would have to be eliminated or modified and structural changes made in Congress. Also, American voters would have to change
their view of third party candidates.

The
American Party of South Carolina is a third party that ran congressional
candidates in the recent election. They ran
believing that most voters were disgusted with the two parties and would
support third party candidates, but election results indicated that most voters
were loyal to the two major parties.
Third party candidates received less than 5% of the vote.

Few
third party candidates have ever received enough votes to seriously challenge
GOP and Democrat candidates at the national level. Most voters apparently believe that a vote
for a third party candidate is a wasted vote.
That must change for third party candidates to gain the credibility
needed to compete with Republican and Democrat candidates.

A
healthy democracy requires partisan opposition to hold the party in power accountable. A radical right GOP and leftist
Democrat Party have abandoned moderate voters and the shared altruistic values
that once mitigated against partisan polarization.A third party is needed.Perhaps in 2018 voters will support a third
party as the means to a politics of reconciliation.